


Short Fuse and Broccoli Head

by rosie__posie



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bullying, Childhood, Childhood bullies to high school sweethearts au, Enemies to Lovers, Height Differences, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2020-12-27 19:16:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21123854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosie__posie/pseuds/rosie__posie
Summary: It didn’t seem like much had really changed in the couple’s dynamic. The two just switched heights.Childhood enemies Galo and Lio become High School Sweethearts.Dumb oneshot idea i had :P





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is a dumb idea i thought of just for fun. Hope you like it :)

It was around recess. Galo stood proud with his group of friends, Team Burning Rescue as he liked to call it. They ran as fast as they could to get to the one place they wanted to be; the fire truck jungle gym. There sitting atop it like he owns the area was Lio Fotia and his two young cohorts, Meis and Gueira. They called themselves Mad Burnish and they refused to give up this spot on the playground.

Galo yelled, trying his best to sound heroic. “We’re here, Lio! You’ve spent too long acting like you own the playground. Give us our turn now!”

Lio chuckled at the thought. He leapt down near his two friends, as they honed in on the spiky blue child. Galo immediately remembered how Lio towered over him and began to squirm a little at getting hurt by the taller child. But he stood his ground nonetheless to keep the morale of his team (i.e. Remi, Varys, Lucia and of course his crush, Aina) from wavering.

Aware of the nervous energy Galo began to bring, Lio whistled to Meis and Guiera, signaling the two kids to bring out their two slingshots and fire rocks at the group. As Burning Rescue retreated to prevent themselves from getting hurt, Galo remained headstrong and did his best to dodge the rocks whilst reaching towards one of the monkey bars of the gym that also appeared as a fireman’s ladder. Lio thwarted his enemy’s plan by tackling him to the ground, pulling one of his spiky locks in one hand whilst pushing his face into the wood chips with the other. After a couple of seconds of this torture, Lio stops for a second and asks, “Surrender?”

Before Galo could refuse, a disapproving throat clear signaled the two enemies to look up. It was Principal Ignis and he wasn’t very happy.

* * *

The man tapped his index finger on the desk as he waited for the phone to pick up. The two children sat on the plastic chairs in front of the desk. Galo, somewhat short to where his feet couldn’t touch the ground, had his arms crossed and remained indignant in being placed in a situation where he wasn’t even doing any harm. Lio on the other hand, tall enough to have his feet firmly planted, rested on his arm, waiting for this meeting to be over.

Ignis slammed the phone on the desk, briefly startling the two kids. The principal spoke in a calm, firm tone. “I’ve been unable to contact your parents, but I’ll be sure to send them details about today’s incident. But honestly, Galo, Lio...this is the third time this week you kids have behaved like this. Maybe you two need some time in counseling to figure things out and apologize to one another.”

Galo immediately needed to speak. “Principal, he should be the one saying sorry to me and my team! He and his friends constantly pick on us and never let us use the jungle gym!”

Lio quietly scoffed. “Please, don't act like you haven't done anything wrong. Last time your team put gum in Meis’s hair and threw ice at us during lunch. We almost got sick because of your whole ‘hero’ act!”

The two stood at each other’s throats. Lio standing higher than Galo and thus appearing more superior. Ignis stopped a fight from breaking out again. “Enough, you two. I’m sending you both to student counseling to get this sorted. I’ll still be emailing your parents about what happened. If you don’t improve by the end of this year, I’ll have to make you repeat fifth grade.”

That immediately shut Lio up, but Galo still stuttered, “But Lio…”

“Not another word, Galo.”

Galo didn’t like to displease Principal Ignis. And so he kept his mouth shut too. Once both were given notes to their respective teachers and had left the principal’s office, both walked to their separate classes. Before they were entirely out of sight of each other, though, Lio gave a snide comment, “Hope to see you in counseling, Short Fuse.”

Galo just made faces at Lio until he was completely out of Galo’s field of vision. Galo just thought to himself. _ As if I could be friends with that long-necked Broccoli Head. _

* * *

Before anyone knew it, high school was upon them. Lio, once the bully, had now become the bullied as he was a studious and academic achiever. He had been a leader of the student council, was in the academic decathlon, and also ran for the track team. To students, aside from Lio’s friend group, he was just too much of a goody-two shoes with his teachers and always gave this air of being superior to others. However, one guy remained able to remove that persona of Lio’s almost automatically.

As Lio perused through his locker to find his math textbook, SLAM! A clash of forearm on metal immediately scared the green-nette almost to death. A chill ran down his spine as he was overborne with a gigantic shadow of a large jock behind him.

“Sup Broccoli Head, ready to head to the Safety Committee Meeting?”

Lio turned to his boyfriend, a bit pissed but still trying his best to maintain composure in his appearance. He whispered, “Yeah, but do you think you could stop surprising me like this, Short Fuse?”

Galo just laughed and slapped his short sweetheart on the shoulder. “Where’s the fun in that, Lio? I like to see you all flustered, y’know? It’s a rare sight to see our stoic student counsel president scared to death by his boyfriend!”

Lio just could not contain his embarrassment with just hand by his face. He walked in a huff with Galo towards their engagement. “Could we please stop focusing on how I look and just talk about something else?!”

Gueira and Meis could not help but watch alongside the Burning Rescue team. The group giggled at the sight of the once mortal enemies now alongside each other, hand in hand. Once previously insulting each other in elementary school, now teasing each other in high school. Although, they had to be honest, it didn’t seem like much had really changed in the couple’s dynamic. The two just switched heights.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kray was always mean-spirited and manipulative. More importantly, though, his actions are what developed Lio and Galo's relationship, both in their childhood and in high school.
> 
> Hi, I did another one because this story was too much fun! Please enjoy :)

Skin scraped across concrete. Tears lay heavy on Galo’s eyes as he looked up to see the older kid that he looked up to spit upon him and chuckle amongst his crew.

“You’re an eyesore, Gal-lows. Do me a favor and stop trying to be friends with me, it’s pathetic.”

The small blue haired firefighter-to-be remained on the ground, unable to even stand up after hearing his idol just… berate and bully him. He gave Kray extra money for lunch, helped him with his health class work and even worked alongside him in removing ‘Mad Burnish’ from their lunch table, and this is the end result of all those memories.

Resentment. Pure Hatred. Perceiving Galo as non-existent. That is what Kray held deep down all this time. And the realization stung Galo to the point of infecting his wounds.

Kray was ready to continue his beatdown on the young child, about to heave his foot atop the shorty’s tender head. But before his sole could reach skull, an arm appeared and pushed his foot up and away from its victim. The force pulled the leg up so high, Kray lost balance and fell flat on his butt.

He looked in angered annoyance to find another familiar eyesore, “Get out of the way, Loser Fotia.”

Lio remained tall and unwilling to move an inch. He gave a deathly glare to his foe. Silence just told Kray that he needed to act now and soon enough, he attempted to hit Lio across the face.

“Kray Foresight!”

Attempt averted. Kray’s eyes popped out and nervousness crept in when he say Principal Ignis and Vice Principal Briar looking over the scene in complete disappointment. He pulled back his arm and used as much charisma he could muster as a 6th grader to convince the adults that he was just trying to prevent Lio from bullying Galo as usual.

They didn’t entirely buy it, and so Kray and his lackeys were given slips to send their parents, then were sent back to their respective classrooms. The blonde kid just looked back at Lio with a stare of vengeance, a sign of more to come. Lio just rolled his eyes and proceeded to offer his hand to his lesser enemy.

Galo pulled his head up with some effort to find a kind hand from a usually unkind kid. He took the offer, but still managed to speak some curt words. “I didn’t need your help, y’know?”

Lio tandem continued the snide behavior, “Looked to me like you did, Short Fuse. Just know that Mad Burnish is getting an extra day on the jungle gym tomorrow as ‘payment’ for today.”

Just hearing that made Galo mad. “No way, Broccoli Head! Burning Rescue deserves to play on it tomorrow!”

Lio shrugged, thinking it was worth a try, then proceeded to walk back to his classroom. Galo interrupted, “Why did you help me, though?”

The green bob turned to see Galo’s anger returned to questioning worry. In response, he simply said, “In counseling, we were taught to treat the victims of bad events with kindness and support. I’m just using what we’ve learned. It’s pretty simple if you don’t sleep during class time.”

And then he just walked away, and refused to look back. But the words reached Galo anyway, beginning his understanding of Lio as more than just a greedy, mean smartass.

* * *

_ Splash! _

Lio laid in the fountain after being heavily shoved by someone he wished would just leave him alone. The same guy that he once stood a bit taller than, even if he was younger than him. Kray Foresight.

“I refuse to believe you are in the same grade as me, Loser Fotia.”

Lio wiped the water from his eyes and proceeded to speak vehemently at the man towering above him in a varsity jacket. “Accept the facts, Kray, and move on! There really is no need for this kind of behavior in high school!”

Kray snapped his fingers towards one of his lackeys, who happened to be holding Lio’s books. He snapped with his other hand, to another kid, holding Lio’s backpack. Kray proceeded to grab the books and began throwing all of them directly towards Lio’s face. Luckily, Lio managed to dodge some of the attacks with only a couple of bruises on his arms from the attempts of defense. But then Kray continued, grabbing the backpack, now. He unzipped the canvas material and turned the entire thing upside down. Papers, pencils, folders, all items instantly dropped to the water and became moot.

After all was removed from the bag, Kray threw the backpack itself into the fountain, then began to splash water and throw the ruined pencils like makeshift darts at the student. Lio held his hands up to his face to prevent any injury, but he also covered it to hide his anguish. Kray berated him like this ever since the start of his high school career and it just is becoming too painful to bear anymore. It used to be so easy, but as the months rolled by and he began to share classes with the bully, the limit to how much harassment he could take was about to be reached.

“HEY! Back off!”

The painful jabs and splashing sounds ceased and soon enough, footsteps were heard. There were running footsteps that both increased and dissipated as Kray and his team scurried away from the scene whilst a familiar form ran towards it. It reached out to Lio with kindness. When he opened his eyes and the sunlight dimmed from his sight, he saw within its halo his boyfriend, looking with intense worry.

“Are you okay, Lio?”

Tears still sat in the corner of his eye, but he did his best to scrub them off and put back his brave face. He took Galo’s hand respectfully and stepped out of the fountain to dry off. They both sat on the dirt, scooping up Lio’s things one by one whilst talking about their days and how classes were going. Only after a couple of minutes talking about how Commander Vulcan’s gym class was becoming too strict did Galo begin to speak up.

“Maybe we should stick together more often. I don’t like seeing you get hurt like this.”

Lio gave a small smile to his love, wanting to remove the worry from his thoughts. “I’m fine, Galo. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can when given a fair chance, but we both know Kray doesn’t play fair.”

The two sighed, both knowing that the last statement was just honest truth. The blue haired jock offered a new idea, “How about we start a club together?”

Lio cocked an eyebrow, “What kind of club were you thinking?”

“We could create a Safety Committee! That way we’ll both be together AND we’ll be working to fight against bullying at this school!”

Galo grinned such a childish smile, the kind a kid would make when they’ve said something they thought was complete genius. But to be fair, Lio thought that the idea of a club to help victims at the school was not a bad idea. And if they needed more members to pass it, both him and Galo definitely had some friends who’d most definitely want to join.

“That’s not a bad idea.”

“Really, you think so?”

“No. I know so.” Lio proceeded to kiss Galo on the forehead before organizing all his waterlogged items back into his bag. He carried the wet container over his shoulder and continued, “Let’s outline the idea tonight at my place and then show it to the principal tomorrow. Sound good?”

Galo blushed a bit by Lio’s quick actions. But then reality settled in and he affirmatively nodded before proceeding to walk alongside the scholar, hand in hand. Both looked forward to creating this club, knowing they’d be doing some real good towards their school… along with being able to spend time together, away from Kray and his cronies.

It was always good to be a helping hand.


End file.
